rds this, which he names _C. mutabile_, the most distinctly
marked species of the genus; chiefly, as it appears, on account of the
bright yellow color. This, however, varies. Some specimens before us are
gray, showing only a trace of yellow below. In some European specimens a
reddish tinge prevails. The form of the sporangium also varies. In
typical specimens, unopened, the shape is almost pyriform; opened, we
have a cylindric, oftenest lemon-yellow vase, mounted on a short striate
stalk. But again, from the same plasmodium, we may have globose
sporangia, opening so as to leave only a shallow, salver-shaped base. In
this case the stipe is also longer. The plasmodium is said to be "clear
lemon yellow."--_Massee._

There seems little doubt that Schumacher had in mind the present
species in his _Trichia aurea_. Rostafinski shows that Fries's synonym,
_C. mutabile_, is founded on a mistake. The earlier specific name is
therefore on Rostafinski's authority adopted.

Not common. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa.

3. CRATERIUM LEUCOCEPHALUM (_Pers._) _Ditmar_.

PLATE VIII., Fig. 5.

1791. _Stemonitis leucocephala_ Gmelin, _Syst. Nat._, II., p. 1467.
1801. _Arcyria_ (?) _leucocephala_ Persoon, _Syn. Fung._, p. 183.
1801. _Craterium_ (?) _leucocephalum_, Persoon, _Syn. Fung._, p. 184.
1813. _Craterium leucocephalum_ (Pers.) Ditmar, Sturm, _Deutsch.
Flora, Pilze_, p. 21, Pl. 11.
1889. _Physarum scyphoides_ Cke. & Balf., _Jour. Myc._, V., p. 186.
1896. _Craterium convivale_ (Batsch) Morg., _Jour. Cin. Soc._, p. 86.

Sporangia gregarious, short-cylindric or ovate, pure white above, brown
or reddish-brown below, stipitate, dehiscence irregularly
circumscissile, the persistent portion of the peridium beaker-shaped;
stipe short, stout, expanded above into the base of the peridium with
which it is concolorous; hypothallus scant; capillitium white or
sometimes, toward the centre, brownish, the calcareous nodules large,
conspicuous, and persistent; spore-mass black, spores violaceous-brown,
minutely spinulose, 8-9 mu.

Distinguished by its white cap from all except the next, from which the
markedly different form serves as the diagnostic feature. In some
gatherings, curious patches of yellow mark the otherwise snow white cap
and sides; these are mere stains, or sometimes definite, crystalline,
flake-like bodies, standing out in plain relief on the sporangial wall,
or lurking in the la